Comprised almost entirely of images, this useful if sometimes cheesy book, aptly subtitled a 'visual sourcebook', provides hundreds of examples of female portraits. The images, taken by over a dozen contemporary working pros, cover multiple genres (e.g. glamour, fashion, high-school senior portraiture, commercial, and wedding).

Divided into head and shoulder, waist-up, three quarter, full-length reclining, sitting, and standing poses, the book provides dozens of examples for evoking moods and effects through posing. As a reference for a pro or an advanced amateur, this represents an easy way to scan a wide range of shots to get ideas when planning a shoot. Posing is a central and often overlooked area in mainstream photographic education. Many well-known pros persuasively argue that given the quality of today’s cameras, poor posing is a larger chronic problem than poor exposure to making shots appear 'unprofessional'.

Thus a book like this, to use as a quick guide for ideas, might easily transform the quality of a session. A few warnings to prospective buyers: The images comprised here are almost exclusively of conventionally attractive young models. Trial and error would be required to assess if some of the poses would still be flattering for women who exist outside the book’s narrow bandwidth of age and shape. And while Perkins does devote two brief pages to general posing vocabulary and technique at the end of the book, no text is devoted to strategies for talking with subjects, regardless of whether they are professional models, so that they might comfortably get into these positions.

Finally, many of the shots appear staged, dated, and artificial. Thankfully several others achieve a tasteful timelessness. And therein lies the book’s strength - by providing such a wide range of possibilities (including looks to avoid), the photographer - or their client - has many possibilities to consider and compare. As long as the reader knows that they are getting a 'sourcebook' (i.e. a compendium of images), rather than a manual for posing, this book can be a helpful tool.

Comments

Awesome book! I have scan it a while ago. Looks like FHM has another threat for the "portrait poses" .Very coo!l I've seen some of it here http://www.portraitposes.org/ for the tips that can help you improve the book more..

OK let me add a few actual titles, which you can add to your library to after purchasing this vastly superior read. "One Thosand New York Buildings" by Bill Harris. "Art of The Automobile: The 100 Greatest Cars", by Dennis Adler. "Master Shots: 100 Advanced Camera Techniques To Get An Expensive Look On Your Low Budget Movie", by Christopher Kenworthy. And finally, "1000 Places To See Before You Die", by Patricia Schultz. It's a numerologists dream collection.

After previewing some pages of the book through books.google.com, I must say any potential buyer should also take a look before buying it. IMO, the most attractive photo is the one on the cover. The ones inside the book are taken inside a studio. There are a lot of pictures but no textual info on camera, exposure setting, lighting, etc. It is really of limited use, other than an idea book.

The review is too general, critical and negative. It is of no use to me.

1.

"The images comprised here are almost exclusively of conventionally attractive young models. Trial and error would be required to assess if some of the poses would still be flattering for women who exist outside the book’s narrow bandwidth of age and shape".

Of course one would choose "conventionally attractive young models" to pose for a book like this. Would you just hire people off the street to do this?

2.

"many of the shots appear staged, dated, and artificial".

Dated isn't necessarily a bad thing, and of course the shots are staged and artificial. Glamor and fashion photography are that way. The book is not titled "500 Candid Poses of Women".

Thanks for the review and follow up comments. A quick look on google books has revealed to me that the book is mainly a series of shots of women that could have been gained by simply studying any source of fashion, glamour shots etc i.e womens fashion mags etc.

After seeing the book I consider that it is more helpful for stage or scene ideas than for the poses. There are a choice of many backgrounds on this book that can be achieved easily on the studio. The poses are ok but most of them are too simple, yearbook like. I am no pro, when I photograph is for fun and this book wasn't so funny.

How many are the attitudes as expressed via a "POSE"Subject may stand, sit or lean or do a "TOYOTA LEAP"However subject rests on a foundation at that instant.In angle of view to camera compos-ed geometrically.

This review could be substituted for many, many Amherst Media, Inc. publications. As a whole they seem like the same reshuffled old material with a flashy new cover - I have bought many with high expectations that did not deliver. What I think the community desires (well at least me) is an entire book devoted to how to communicate/entertain/deal with your subjects. Not everyone has people skills and putting your subject at ease is half the battle.That and a flip book with just uncluttered wireframe/outline poses (I have seen an independently published book like this online but I forgot where it was and it was pricey, like $75) so you can just show the subject how to position themselves rather than describing it to them. Not something a pro would need but something a beginner would find very useful.

Unless Google is engaged in copyright infringement (I doubt it), this appears to be above board. In fact, a look at the Google Books website suggests that the author of the book permitted its partial posting as an effort to market the book.

Great comment.... I'm sure the writer will be very happy with people who want to know the contents of the book but refuse to pay for it.It must really motivate him to maybe write another book. same category aspeople who illegally download movies for free as wel...

"Google Books is a book marketing program, not an online library, and as such, a full page of a book won't be viewable online unless expressly permitted by the copyright holder. Until then, people who find a copyrighted book will see, at most, basic bibliographic information about the book plus a few snippets — sentences of their search term in context. If the copyright holder has given us permission to show more, users can see a Limited Preview which allows them to browse a limited number of pages from the book. "

A non-sponsored article, at last!DPReview is becoming unrecognizable. Camera reviews are getting increasingly rare (not to mention lenses), and now they say that an iphone is all you need to take good pictures.

emersonik, the articles have absolutely no bearing on the production of camera or lens reviews. Our reviews take time, which is why they are thorough, which is why you read them.As for the iphone, our article obviously never said it is "all" you need to make a good picture. But I'm reminded of the old maxim, "A good photographer can make a great picture with a bad camera. A bad photographer can make a bad picture with a great camera."

Like they said to the other guy...calm down. Obviously the line you are concerned with is not the conclusion of the review. "Buy this book on Amazon" is simply a link in case you want to buy it. The line appears two sections after the end of the review, after some non-review book data. And the review was not terribly kind to the book.

I should also add that I don't think the other book reviews are thinly disguised sales attempts for Amazon.

What seems more likely is the reviewers are sharing some of their favourite books. The difference with this review is that it mentions negatives in more detail.This style is much more useful to people considering buying.

What happened to, "The customer is always right?" Yes, we understand that reviews take a long time to do thoroughly, but the fact is that the feature articles, in particular, have grown increasingly fluffy. The recent article on shooting at the beach was just such a fluff piece, and DPReview of ten years ago would not have published many, if any, of those shots unless to use them as examples of what not to do. I will always be an amateur, but I have grown from the comments of the many capable and generally competent participants on this site in the past. I would certainly like to see it remain top notch.

I have seen the whole book, and I would not describe it as "Softcore book" as was described above. It is more of a catalogue for poses, with nothing to read at all except one chapter at the end that consists of two pages of brief tips. Can be useful for those who look for ideas of poses, but for those who look for learning photography techniques, I hardly find it of any use.

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